Keyed ophicleide

The first nineteenth-century lower brass invention to find wide favour with both composers and instrumentalists was the ophicleide. Invented by Jean Hilaire Asté (Halary) in 1817, keys are used to cover holes which increase proportionally in diameter as the bore of the instrument widens. Ophicleides in Bb or C are the bass instruments of the keyed bugle family, which are made entirely of metal and in a pure conical shape. Initially with nine keys and later with ten or eleven, ophicleides were particularly prevalent in France, Belgium and the UK, but were also found in Germany, Italy, and later in both North and South America. Though seldom written for specifically after 1850, they remained in common usage in some parts of Europe until the early twentieth century. The instrument used in these recordings of music from Hector Berlioz, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Gioachino Rossini, Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner is an ophicleide in B-flat with 11 keys, built by Wessex in ca. 2015, copying an original by Gautrot from ca. 1840.

'Berliner' Basstuba

On 12th September 1835 Berlin-based musical administrator Friedrich Wilhelm Wieprecht and inventor Johann Gottfried Moritz were granted a Prussian patent for their chromatische Baß-Tuba. Originally designed for the Prussian military bands, the Basstuba found favour with Hector Berlioz, who heard it in 1843 whilst on an extended conducting tour of the German States. His influence greatly contributed to its widespread use in central Europe by the mid-nineteenth century. Pitched in F with five valves, the Berliner-Pumpen valves were soon superseded by rotary valves. The instrument used in these recordings of music from Johannes Brahms, Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner and Bedrich Smetena was built by Ahlberg & Ohlsson in Stockholm in ca. 1860.

Valved ophicleide

In 1833, two years before Wieprecht and Moritz filed their patent in Berlin, Josef Riedl patented his “Bass-Pumpathon mit einer Maschine”, an instrument he had been advertising since 1829 as a “Bass Bombardon”, available with either keys or valves. He was one of several inventors of this period attempting to add the newly invented valve to older ophicleide designs. Popular in some Bavarian and Austrian military bands until the late nineteenth century, they never found widespread use in the orchestra, although contemporaneous Austro-Hungarian control over Lombardy dictates that they were probably used in Italian opera houses to replace the earlier wooden bass horn, confusingly often also being referred to as a “cimbasso”. The instrument used in these recordings of music from Giuseppe Verdi, Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Friedrich von Flotow and Richard Wagner was built by Friedbert Syhre and Takao Nakagawa in 2007.

Bavarian C bombardon

The firm of Václav Červený produced their first contrabass Bombardons in C and (contra) F in 1845, and patented their soon-ubiqutuous Kaiserbaß bass and contrabass tubas in 1884. However, it is unclear as to which exact instrument ‘contrabass tuba’ parts were was written for, sources suggesting that the term was used mostly in association with a ‘Wiener’ tuba (see below). Nevertheless, an instrument similar to that used here built by an anonymous Bavarian manufacturer in ca. 1880 may be similar to one used in the Munich “pre-premieres” of Rheingold in 1869 and Die Walküre in 1870.

Early 'Wiener' tuba

Current research suggests that instrument used at the Bayreuth premiere of Der Ring des Nieblungen in 1876 by Otto Waldemar Brucks was a tuba in F, built by Paulus in Berlin. This instrument was soon replaced by a similar tuba built by Uhlmann in Vienna in 1875, bought by the Hofopernorchester in 1885, and similar instruments were used for other Austro-Germanic works premiered in this period. This instrument has become known as a ‘Wiener’ tuba. The instrument used for recordings of these excerpts of music from Richard Wagner, Johannes Brahms, Anton Bruckner, Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss was built by Peter Emanuel Schmidt in Copenhagen in around 1880.

Bohemian E-flat bombardon

In Russia, the tuba first gained an orchestral presence through advocation by enthusiastic amateur musician Emperor Alexander III. He ordered a tuba from Červený through their outpost in Odessa, often seen as the start of large Kaiserbaß tubas being preferred in Russia. The Emperor’s instrument was actually a comparatively small tuba in E-flat, pitched a fifth higher than those introduced by the military in B-flat, and sources suggest that this was the commonly used orchestral instrument until the First World War. The instrument used for recordings of these excerpts of music from Antonin Borodin, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Alexander Glazunov and Sergei Rachmaninoff was built by V. F. Červený in Hradec Králové in ca. 1919.

Late 'Wiener' tuba

By the turn of the century, a the bell and bore size of the ‘Wiener’ tuba had grown and a sixth valve was als now commonly found. Mutes had also been developed, first used in an orchestral work by Richard Strauss. These instruments were used in Bayreuth until at least 1911, when Emil Hartmann, who always referred to his F tuba as a “contrabasstuba”, played there for the final time. The instrument used for recordings of these excerpts of music from Anton Bruckner, Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Alban Berg and Arnold Schönberg was built by Augustus Kley in Berlin in ca. 1918.

‘Verdi’ cimbasso

By the early 1870s, Giuseppe Verdi was increasingly dissatisfied with the ‘early’ cimbasso and the ophicleide, and only allowed the bombardon into his on-stage bands. By 1881 he had aided development of a valved contrabass trombone in B-flat from the manufacturer Pelitti. There after, Verdi wrote for the instrument he called a trombone basso, Pelitti called a trombone basso Verdi, and today is called a cimbasso or a ‘Verdi’ cimbasso. The instrument used in these recordings of music from Giuseppe Verdi, Pietro Mascagni, Giacomo Puccini and Ruggero Leoncavallo was built by Romeo Orsi in Milan between 1902-1918.

French C tuba

In 1852, Adolph Sax patented a system of six independent valves for use on his saxhorn nouveau basse. This tuning system never found widespread appeal, but by 1882 the instrument had evolved into what today is known as the ‘small French tuba in C’, which, until the late twentieth century, was commonly found in French orchestras. The instrument used in these recordings of music from Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky, Maurice Ravel and César Franck was built by Couesnon after 1882.

English F tuba

In Vienna in 1871, Daniel Fuchs added a sixth valve to a Basstuba in order to improve intonation and aid blending with the sound of the Vienna horn. Although few of these instruments were built, when Richard Wagner was invited to England in 1877 by Hans Richter (appointed musical director in Vienna in 1875), arrangements were made for these tubas to be shipped over for the performances. Appreciation of this instrument in the UK lead to the development of the English F tuba, which, until the 1960s, was the standard orchestral tuba used in Britain. The instrument used in these recordings of music from Antonín Dvořák, Edward Elgar, Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Arnold Schönberg was built by Joseph Higham in ca. 1904.